Friday, 6 April 2012

Following the unfortunate problems we had with the PSU, it has now been repaired. A bench check, isolated from the mother board, is now showing the correct voltages on all pins. The PSU has now been re-connected via a terminal block. Upon powering on, there is some kind of video signal, but the old analog TV we have has lost its remote, so there is no way to 'tune' to the NASCOM. There is certainly a signal there, but whether it is just carrier is impossible to tell. The hunt is now on for an analog TV with manual tuning. So, we still don't know whether we damaged the main board during the first power up in which the PSU malfunctioned, but will find out soon enough.

Blog Archive

About NASCOM

The Nascom 1 and 2 were single-board computer kits issued in 1977 and 1979, respectively, based on the Zilog Z80 and including a keyboard and video interface, a serial port that could be used to store data on a tape cassette using the Kansas City standard, and two 8-bit parallel ports. To minimize cost, the buyer had to assemble a Nascom by hand-soldering about 3,000 joints on the single circuit board.

Z80

"The Z80 was an improved implementation of the Intel 8080 architecture, which was faster, more capable, and much cheaper; alongside the 6502 it was one of the most popular 8-bit processors for general purpose microcomputers and other applications. It was used in the Nintendo Game Boy, the Sinclair ZX80, ZX81, ZX Spectrum and the Amstrad CPC home computers as well as the MSX architecture and the Tandy TRS-80 series—among many others. More so than simply sparking improvements in the budding field of home computing and gaming, the Z-80 also sparked a revolution in electronic music, as the first truly programmable polyphonic synthesizers (as well as their peripherals) relied heavily on implementations of this CPU." --- Wikipedia